Housefull 5 (2025) - Star-Studded Comedy Chaos | Film

The chaos begins, as it always does in this universe, with a will. A father, a fortune, and a son named Jolly - a name so absurdly cheerful it could only belong to the Hindi film industry’s most durable comedy franchise. But here’s the twist that separates Housefull 5 from its predecessors: this time, there’s a body. Or rather, there’s a murder, and no one is sure who the corpse is, who the killer is, or frankly, who the hell is supposed to be Jolly. It’s a comedy, a mystery, and a thriller, all rolled into one gloriously overcrowded cruise ship, and director Tarun Mansukhani has decided that the only way to celebrate a father’s birthday is to turn it into a floating crime scene.

The premise is deliciously simple, which is exactly why it works. A father writes his will, decreeing that his son "Jolly" will inherit everything. The catch? No one knows which Jolly is the real one. Enter three men, each with the confidence of a seasoned con artist and the logic of a drunk uncle at a wedding. Riteish Deshmukh plays Jalabuddin, who claims the title as Jolly No. 1, bringing his signature wide-eyed desperation to the role. Abhishek Bachchan, as Jalbhushan, is Jolly No. 2, and he’s clearly having the time of his life trading deadpan glances with his co-stars. And then there’s Akshay Kumar, the veteran of this franchise, who steps in as Julius - Jolly No. 3 - with the swagger of a man who has done this dance four times before and could do it in his sleep. The film, at 163 minutes, gives them ample time to lie, scheme, and pivot, and the result is a bloated but oddly endearing mess.

What makes Housefull 5 different from its predecessors is its willingness to lean into the mystery genre. The trailer teased a whodunit, and the film delivers on that promise, albeit with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The murder occurs mid-cruise, and suddenly the comedy shifts gears. The slapstick remains, but there’s a palpable tension that Mansukhani, known for Dostana, manages to sustain. The jokes come faster, the stakes feel higher, and for a brief, glorious moment, you forget that you’re watching a Housefull movie and not a very peculiar episode of Scooby-Doo. But the film never fully commits to its thriller instincts. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, and so we get sequences that are genuinely suspenseful followed immediately by Nana Patekar doing something so absurd that the tension evaporates.

Patekar, as Dagdu Hulgund, is the film’s secret weapon. The man who once terrified audiences with his intensity in Angaar and Krantiveer now delivers lines about inheritance with the dead-eyed commitment of a man who has seen it all. He’s brilliant. Sanjay Dutt, as Bhidu, hovers around the edges like a benevolent storm cloud, and every time he appears, the film’s energy shifts. The women, meanwhile, are given considerably less to do - Jacqueline Fernandez as Sashikala, Sonam Bajwa as Zara Akhtar, and Nargis Fakhri as Kaanchi are essentially decorative, though they handle their limited material with grace. It’s a shame, because the film’s best moments come from the male ensemble bouncing off each other, and the female characters are often relegated to reaction shots.

The comedy itself is a mixed bag, as always. Some gags land with the precision of a well-aimed pie; others crash and burn like a stunt gone wrong. The film’s self-awareness helps. At one point, a character points out that the situation has become "a classic Housefull scenario," winking at the audience as if to say, yes, we know this is ridiculous, but you’re still here, aren’t you? And we are. That’s the franchise’s genius. It never pretends to be high art. It’s a rollercoaster that occasionally lifts its hands off the railings, and you scream because you’re having fun, not because you’re genuinely scared.

The TMDb rating of 5.3/10 feels about right, maybe even a touch generous. This is not a good movie in any traditional sense. It’s overlong, tonally inconsistent, and sometimes exhausting. But it’s also oddly comforting, like a familiar joke told by an old friend who can’t remember the punchline but tells it anyway with such enthusiasm that you laugh out of relief. Mansukhani, stepping in for the franchise’s usual maestros, handles the chaos with a light touch, ensuring that the cruise never sinks, even when it lists dangerously close to the rocks.

Where does this leave the Housefull universe? The film’s ending, without giving anything away, explicitly leaves the door open for a sixth installment. The will, it turns out, was just the beginning. There’s more money, more confusion, and presumably, more pretend heirs waiting in the wings. Whether audiences will board that ship again depends on how fondly they remember this cruise. For the faithful, it’s a reward. For the skeptical, it’s a warning. For me, it’s a reminder that Bollywood’s most persistent comedy franchise still knows how to make a murder feel like a party. And sometimes, that’s all you need.